Talk about mystery meat: A highway in upstate New York was shut down after being covered with chunks of rotting meat earlier this week, creating quite a stink for drivers. The strangest part? Officials aren't quite sure where the offending flesh came from.
Dozens of chunks of raw meat littered a road in Queensbury on Thursday, covering passing cars in stinking gore as they traveled through the town about 60 miles from Albany, The Post-Star Glens Falls reported. Aviation Road was closed for about 2 hours while the state Department of Transportation cleaned up. But drivers were still dealing with the disgusting aftermath on Friday.
Driver James Teele said he immediately took his SUV to a car wash after driving through the mess en route home Thursday, "but it was too late." He told the Post-Star: "My vehicle still smells like rotting meat" and flies are swarming around it.
He said he believes the offending material was chicken fat, although the Post-Star reports that it may have been red beef. Police believe the meat fell off a truck en route from a farm or slaughterhouse, but so far, no one has come forward to claim it.
Local car washes were chock full of motorists trying to obliterate the meat smell. As many as 35 drivers flocked to Hoffman Car Wash, which started asking them to hose off their cars in a self-service area before going through the automatic wash, manager Matt Phillips said.
Still, the stench was hard to stomach for car wash employees.
"My guys had to step out for a while, it was so bad," Phillips told the Associated Press.
Drivers were still coming in Friday trying to smoke out the odor.
"After a while, it will decay," Phillips said. "But until then, when you turn the air (conditioning) on or air comes through the vents, watch out."
According to the United States Department of Agriculture Food Safety and Inspection Service, meat will spoil rapidly in the "Danger Zone" — temperatures between 40 and 140 °F.
"Temperatures were in the mid-70s on Thursday, with mostly sunny skies," says weather.com meteorologist Chrissy Warrilow. "The weather conditions, coupled by the fact that asphalt absorbs solar radiation and reemits it as heat, support the growth of bacteria within the meat."